I’m one of the lucky ones. My work has taken me all over the world, and I’ve been able to see some of the planet’s most majestic creatures up close.

Many people will never get this chance.

Imagine a world in which our children and grandchildren’s only experience of a giraffe, a lion or a turtle is a picture in a storybook, or re-runs of the BBC’s Planet Earth; a remnant of the planet they could have inhabited if we’d taken collective action.

World Wildlife Day is a moment to celebrate all of the beautiful and varied plants and animals that make up our natural world. But it is also an important time to take notice of the havoc we are wreaking on that world.

Extinctions are a natural occurrence. They have happened for millions of years, and they will continue to happen into the future.

While our world would certainly be a duller place without varied wildlife, by destroying nature, and threatening its vital species with extinction we are actually putting our very way of life at risk.

We, human beings, are dependent on our natural world. We rely on it for our food, our water, our health, our jobs and our happiness, and as we continue to destroy it, it will be those most reliant on nature and wildlife - the most disempowered and marginalised - that will be hardest hit.

Whether it is the destruction of our rainforests or our oceans, for millions of people this loss of environmental security means hunger, poverty and vulnerability.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

By taking action now to protect our wildlife and the oceans, forests and other natural habitats they call home, we can halt this pattern towards extinction.

By implementing conservation measures and creating, sustaining and enforcing protected areas in our oceans and forests we can protect our wildlife, and the people who rely on them for their food and livelihoods.

This World Wildlife Day, EJF urges you to remember the huge benefits that protecting our natural environment will have, both for us and for future generations.

Ultimately, protecting biodiversity, the incredible array of wildlife species that underpin our world, is about protecting people and planet.

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